(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image shooting apparatus for stereoscopic images using a plurality of image pickup means, a display apparatus capable of stereoscopic display and an image shooting and display apparatus capable of shooting and displaying stereoscopic images.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, camera apparatus having two image pickup means for shooting and recording stereoscopic images have been proposed. For example, a patent literature 1 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Hei 8 No. 317425) has disclosed an electronic camera which shoots an identical subject by two image pickup means arranged side by side in the horizontal direction of the camera body and records the left and right image information to thereby realize the shooting and recording of a stereoscopic still picture. Further, this electronic camera has a mode select switch between a normal mode and a stereoscopic shooting mode so that it can effect both the normal shooting and stereoscopic shooting by switching the image pickup means driven in link with the operation of the switch.
In the case of shooting a stereoscopic image as in the above prior art, the two image pickup means are generally arranged apart as much as the distance between human eyes. This is done because it becomes possible to obtain a natural stereoscopic image by shooting images similar to the human field of vision. Further, the two image pickup means are also generally arranged in the horizontal direction of the shooting apparatus as described in the prior art, in conformity with the human field of vision.
The electronic camera of the above prior art is aimed at shooting still pictures but the above configuration is not limited to still pictures but can also be applied to motion pictures. That is, it is possible to provide an electronic camera which can shoot stereoscopic motion pictures in addition to still pictures, by application of the above prior art.
In order to view the captured stereoscopic images, a display means capable of displaying stereoscopic images is needed. For this purpose, for example a display device described in a non-patent literature 1 (“2D/3D Switchable Display” written by Jacobs, et al. in Sharp Technical Report April, 2003) may be used. When the above electronic camera includes such a display device, the captured stereoscopic image can be viewed on the spot.
Generally, the mean distance between human eyes is 65 mm. Accordingly, if a pair of image pickup means are attempted to be arranged in the horizontal direction of a camera as in the prior art electronic camera, it is naturally necessary to provide a housing with as much width. In practice, since the image pickup means have their own thickness and the housing structure also has its own thickness, the apparatus is not feasible if it does not have a width broader than 65 mm.
On the other hand, recent popular, so-called digital cameras have become miniaturized, so there are many products that do not have the above width. In particular, in the category of apparatus of the types that can shoot motion pictures as well as still pictures, many kinds of so-called movie cameras of one-hand grip style have been found on the market. In many cases, the cameras of this kind have as much a body width as the lens size of the image pickup means. Accordingly, the prior art arrangement of a pair of image pickup means side by side in the horizontal direction is not always a suitable manner to realize a stereoscopic image shooting function.
This problem is not limited to digital cameras. The recent miniaturization and high-performance trend of image pickup devices and microprocessors make it popular for hand-held type telephones such as cellular phones and PHS, or information terminals such as PDAs, to incorporate an image capturing function of still pictures and motion pictures, and it has come to a point where these hand-held type telephones or information terminals are able to be used in the same manner as digital cameras. However, if a stereoscopic image shooting function is attempted to be provided for these devices, it is difficult to secure a sufficient distance for laying out two image pickup means in the horizontal direction of the device as in the case described with the digital cameras. In particular, a cellular phone generally has a vertically long configuration for convenience of use as a telephone, so it is difficult to arrange two image pickup means in the horizontal direction of the device.
Further, there is also another inherent problem due to cellular phones. That is, the display portion for displaying images also tends to be vertically long similarly to the cellular phone's device configuration, hence the display is not necessarily suitable as a stereoscopic display means for creating a stereoscopic effect by use of the parallax of left- and right-eyes.
The above prior art enables stereoscopic shooting by inclusion of two image pickup means. Other than stereoscopic shooting, use of a plurality of image pickup means also enables panorama shooting mode in which output images from a plurality of image pickup means are joined to form a large-sized continuous image and plural shooting mode in which as many different scenes as the number of the image pickup means are captured at the same time. However, the above prior art does not make reference to any configuration which enables both the stereoscopic shooting made and these various shooting modes.